Stay Alive, Sportsman
by Frack
Summary: One-shot. In honour of National AIDS Day and all those darn AIDS awareness shows on MTV.


Stay Alive, Sportsman 

Disclaimer: I don't own Slam Dunk, the characters or anything.****

A short, mostly PWP fic involving Mitsui and yes, Tetsuo! Why? One, because I was bored and I decided to write something that didn't have any romance in it. Two, because I like Tetsuo's voice. A whole lot. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mitsui looked down onto the pavement, tracing the cracks with his eyes. He frowned, thinking about what the doctor had said.

"Your knee is fine, Mitsui-san."

"But it aches."

"I assure you, there's nothing wrong with it."

"But, but…" he sputtered as he was ushered away by the old nurse who, he thought, privately, looked like an owl.

His frown deepening, he kicked a pebble lying around with his good leg. His other knee still ached. The pebble flew up into the air like a mini rocket and rather ungracefully plummeted back down to the earth where it bounced a bit before finally ceasing to move. 

As Mitsui approached the pebble to kick it again – the poor pebble being the victim of his frustration – when he noticed that the pebble had stopped next to something. Something, big, strangely shaped and all black. He was staring at it intently when it – gasp – spoke to him.

"Mitsui."

He gasped and reeled back a little in shock. His thoughts were in a jumble until one thought finally picked itself up and screamed at him, "It's a shoe, baka!". But shoes can't talk, he argued to himself before realizing that the shoe was attached to a foot, which was attached to a person.  He barely had time to feel embarrassed before the next thought hit him. That wasn't just any person. He realized vaguely that he probably still had a shocked expression on his face.

"Tetsuo," he said, uncertainly.

A moment of silence passed between them. 

Mistui took in everything. Tetsuo, leaning against the lamppost, his motorcycle – still as beautiful as ever Mitsui noted – parked next to him, and the empty bottle in his grasp.

Fishing for something to say, he finally blurted out, "My knee is fine." Then he realized that probably meant nothing to Tetsuo who didn't know why he was there in the first place. He quickly added, "I, uh, went to check it. It was aching again."

Tetsuo nodded although Mitsui noticed he had a faraway look in his eyes. Slightly offended, Mitsui wondered if Tetsuo had even heard him. Following the direction of his eyes, Mitsui realized that Tetsuo had been staring intently at the hospital and looked like he had been for a long time.

"How long have you been here?" he asked suspiciously.

Tetsuo shrugged, changing the subject. "Your hair. It's shorter now."

Mitsui didn't quite know how to take that remark. 

Tetsuo grinned. "It's shorter. More becoming of you. You look… like a…sportsman," he continued. Apparently happy with his own term he continued, "A sportsman. A young, healthy sportsman."

Something in the way Tetsuo had said "healthy" bothered him. Maybe it was just the alcohol he reasoned. 

"I have a secret to tell you, sportsman."

Mitsui almost cringed. Tetsuo was speaking like a child and it was very, very unnerving for someone who could easily have beat up Mitsui right there and then. And that was saying a lot, considering Mitsui wasn't exactly a weakling himself.

He leaned closer to Mitsui, who had moved to stand next to him. Mitsui could feel his breath tickling his ear and his breath carried the unmistakable stench of alcohol. It wasn't a particularly comfortable feeling and Mitsui would have moved farther away if he wasn't so surprised at what Tetsuo said next.

"I just came from there too," he continued, his empty hand gesturing shortly toward the hospital.

Again a barrage of questions attacked his mind. Tetsuo… in a hospital?

"And you know." He gave a short laugh, although Mitsui couldn't detect any humour in it. "You know, they said, I have…" Tetsuo paused dramatically. "I have AIDS."

Mitsui felt his mind go momentarily blank.

"What?"

"AIDS."

Mitsui felt himself reeling to grab hold of the word and process the information.

"How?"

Tetsuo shrugged.

Mitsui finally stopped the thought from jumbling up in his head and the little he knew about the disease started to emerge. 

AIDS. 

He didn't really remember what it stood for. Some fancy English phrase, Immune something or other. But he did know one thing, there was no cure.

Mitsui looked over at Tetsuo who was now carefully avoiding his gaze by staring back at the hospital. He wondered if Tetsuo knew that there wasn't a cure then it occurred to him that the doctors probably had told him. A strange feeling of sadness rose in him.

Tetsuo raised the bottle back to his lips and when nothing flowed out realized that he had drank it all. Swirling the bottle to check if it was really empty, Tetsuo sighed and threw it onto the side of the road.

"How?" Mitsui repeated, still not quite grasping the situation.

Tetsuo waited a moment then answered, "They (he used the word as if it was evil) said it was probably from needles or something. Or maybe it was from the girls. Who knows." 

Mitsui had always known the drugs were dangerous, that's why he had stayed away from them even when he was still best friend's with Tetsuo. But he never thought, he never thought it would be this serious.

Tetsuo swung his leg over his motorcycle.

"I need more beer."

Then, apparently as an afterthought and result of a sick sense of humour, he threw something at Mitsui. 

"If I'm dying, you might as well have it. Stay alive, sportsman."

Mitsui didn't try to stop him. Once Tetsuo had made up his mind, Mitsui or the world wasn't going to stop him from getting his beer.

Watching as Tetsuo rode off, Mitsui looked at what Tetsuo had given him. He had to stare at it again for some seconds before he finally realized what it was.

Mitsui shook his head and suppressed a small smile.

Tetsuo had just given him a condom.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you didn't quite understand why Tetsuo had given him a condom, it's because you can get infected with the HIV virus if you don't use a condom while ehem, *coughs* getting it on. So Tetsuo, thinking that he might as well help his friend avoid the disease gave it to him. Using one can greatly reduce your chances of getting infected and don't think you can't because 90% of people that have the disease don't know it. But I'll stop ranting now. Please review. ^_^

E-mail: fracky_00@hotmail.com

Website: www.geocities.com/sakuranokaerizaki 


End file.
